More Information

Fact box

Page 1 of 1

The Staples gymnastics team began its preparations for the stretch run with a 132.6-127.9 win over Greenwich in a meet at the Greenwich YWCA on Monday afternoon. The point total was a season high for the Wreckers.

The Wreckers excelled in the beam, posting a score of 35.35. Although it has been a weak spot in the past, the beam has improved to head coach Kelsey Martin's satisfaction.

"We did better today," Martin said. "It was an improvement on beam; two girls fell but everyone else stayed on and nailed their routines. I was very happy with how they did."

With both teams battling the injury bug, the Wreckers and Cardinals put out strong efforts that left both teams pleased. Staples has been without Hannah Rose for the entire season and Deanna Baris for the past two weeks. Greenwich's Kat McCaffrey is on the injury list as well.

"The girls themselves have developed very well, they are improving," Martin said. "We have had some setbacks with injuries. I think we are a little behind where we want to be; our goal is to hit it 100 percent at FCIAC's, so hopefully we are on that track."

"I think we did really well, we've been a really strong team lately and we tried are best," said Cardinals senior Hannah Klein. "When we do that we are going to do well."

While there were many impressive scores across the four events, an excellent performance occurred in the floor by a gymnast making her debut in the event. Rachel Metzger scored a 7.1, impressing her teammates in the process.

"(Metzger) never did floor before in a meet and she did amazing," Greenwich's Tori Mann, who scored 8.7 on the bars and 8.3 on the vault, said. "We are really proud of her."

Both the vault and bars went right to the wire. Staples prevailed 32.9-32.55 in the vault and 31.2-31.1 in the bars.

"We did really well on floor and bars today," Martin said. "We were weakest in the vault; I think now we are very clean and now we are focusing on adding difficulty and skills to the routines. We've learned the skills for the harder difficulty but now we can work on cleaning them up."

With FCIAC's fewer than three weeks away, both teams are working towards the same goal of adding difficulty in an attempt to raise scores. Both teams have difficult run-ins to the playoffs, including meets with Darien and Wilton on the horizon.

"I'm very happy with where my girls are at," Greenwich coach Sue Knight said. "I am comfortable with their routines; we are going to try to add more difficulty."

Violette, a first team FCIAC selction last year, has led the Wreckers all season long. Vio-ers all season long. Violette finished off the meet with an 8.8 on the beam.

"I've been here with (Violette) all four years," Martin said. "She is very clean and she's fearless. I tell her something and she'll try it. She's really consistent; all of her scores are usually the same."

Greenwich was pleased with its overall performance.

"We had a really good day today," Knight said. "We stayed on the beam much better, that always helps the scores. We had a meet on Saturday (against Trumbull) and I thought they did a really nice job."